Wicca

Primarily the formation of Wicca, as a subcategory of pagan revivalist movements emerging in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, is the product of the efforts of Gerald Gardner’s attempts to construct an authentically “English” religious system that could revive the traditional religious and cultural practices of England’s rich and diverse pagan heritage. It is also a religious tradition replete with archetypal forms, mythological structures, and appropriated alchemical models of ritual and religious practice that closely correlates with the analytical psychology of Carl Jung and, in this sense, is extremely significant to the development of psychological theory.

Gerald Gardner and the Origins of Wicca in British Romanticism

Being heavily influenced by nineteenth-century Romantic representations of “merry England,” Gardner integrated the ideas surrounding pagan beliefs and practices into a coherent, structured, and practical format. Particularly pertinent in his research was the...